In The Flow

Breath and movement help us connect – not only to ourselves, but to the natural flow and rhythm of life. This Embodied Meditation begins with a breathing practice, then progresses to gentle, breath-centered movement. You’ll finish by riding your breath into stillness, resting into your place in the flow of things.

Transcript

Hi, This is Paige. Breath and movement help us connect, Not only to ourselves, But to the natural flow and rhythm of life. This embodied meditation begins with a breathing practice, Then it eases into gentle breath-centered movement. You'll finish by riding your breath into stillness, Resting into your place in the flow of things. You'll begin sitting. So you can be sitting on a cushion or a stack of blankets on the floor. You can be sitting in a chair. Let yourself get comfortable. And let's start by literally feeling breath moving in the body. If you like, Rest your hands right at your collarbones, The very top of your chest. And as you breathe, Notice how this area perhaps moves. Your lungs reach all the way up to your collarbones. We don't often visualize them up that far, But they do. Just take in the rise and fall of your breath all the way up in the top of your chest. And then move your hands down to your ribcage. Maybe you'll just rest them on the sides of your ribcage so your fingers can fan forward toward the front of your body. Your thumbs can be pointing toward your back and your palms just resting there at your side ribs. And again, Take in how your breath is moving here. You may feel your ribs expanding into your hands on your inhale and gathering back in toward your center on your exhale. Finally rest your hands on your belly. So your lungs of course don't reach all the way into your abdominal cavity. But every time you inhale your diaphragm expands and presses against your abdomen. So your abdomen expands to respond to that. It can feel almost as if you're breathing into your belly. With your hands gently resting there, Take in that expansion on every inhale and softening release on every exhale. And then as you're ready, Simply rest your hands. Maybe the backs of your hands rest on your legs. Your palms gently rest open and up. And we'll take in a three part breathing practice here, Touching into the areas we've just focused on. As you're ready, Exhale your breath. And as you're ready to inhale, First just feel your inhale filling into the top of your chest and your collarbones and pause. Sip in a little bit more breath, Feel it billow into your rib cage and pause. Sip in the final amount of that inhale, Feel as if it's expanding into your belly. And then as you exhale, Relax your belly and your ribs and your chest and collarbones. And again, Inhale into the top of your chest and pause. A little bit more breath into your ribs, Front to back, Side to side, Pause. Final amount of that inhale all the way into what feels like your belly and pause. Gentle exhale, Softening your belly, Softening your ribs, Softening your collarbones. That's more like that, Inhale into your collarbones and chest, Pause, Fully into your rib cage and pause. All the way into what feels like your belly and pause. Release your breath, Softening your belly, Your ribs, Your collarbones, Maybe even your shoulders. And if you've been sitting in a cross-legged seat, It might feel nice to switch the cross of your legs, Come back into your seat and let's begin to move a long breath here. When you're ready to inhale, Stretch your right arm up alongside your ear and as you're ready to exhale, Hinge your way over to the left and just feel that whole right side body arc up and over and then inhale all the way back up through center and exhale, Float your right arm back down. We'll do that on the left. Inhale, Stretch your left arm up alongside your left ear. As you exhale, Hinging up and over to your right whole left side body, Taking that in. Inhale all the way back up, Exhale, Float your left arm down. We'll do that same thing again. Inhale, Right arm reaching up alongside your right ear, Exhale up and over to your left. Inhale back up through center, Exhale, Float your right arm down. One more time, Other side. Inhale, Left arm stretches up alongside your ear, Exhale up and over to your right. Inhale all the way back up through center, Exhale, Float your left arm down. Just pause and take a breath here and feel a gentle twist to your right. So as you twist your spine to your right, You might let your left arm cross over, Perhaps just gently anchor your left hand on your outer right thigh. Your right hand can be by your hip. Take an inhale here and as you exhale, You might feel your body just naturally twist into that shape a little bit more. And then as you inhale, You might pulse out of that twist a tiny amount or a whole lot. And as you exhale, Let yourself wrap back into that twist again. You might even float your gaze over to the right. One more little pulse. Inhale, Unwrap that twist any amount. Exhale, Feel your body twist its way to the right. One more time. Inhale, Unravel your whole spine, Come back through center. Take a breath. And that same twist to the left. So you'll gently twist your body to the left, Maybe your right arm crosses over. It can anchor on the outside of your left thigh. Left hand can be right outside your left hip. Take an inhale here and as you exhale, Feel how much your body would like to twist its way to the left. You might even take your gaze to the left. Inhale unravel from that twist any amount. And as you exhale, Wrap your way back into it. And do that one more time. Inhale unravel that twist a little bit or a whole lot. And exhale, Bring yourself toward the left. Maybe your gaze floats left. And inhale all the way back through center. Take a breath. Let's make our way here into a tabletop shape. So hands and knees shape on the ground. And from that tabletop shape, We'll move into some basic cow and cat breathing and stretching. When you're ready to inhale, You can lengthen through your spine, Maybe arch a little bit. You can tip your sitting bones up and broaden through your collarbones. And then as you're ready to exhale, Reverse that shape by gently rounding through your low back, Your middle back, Your upper back, Your head can drop. Looks like a little cat shape, Halloween cat shape. And then reverse it again as you inhale, Lengthening, Maybe arching through your spine, Your belly might drop as your collarbones broaden. And then as you exhale, Rounding your way back into that little cat tuck shape. And move like that a few more times on the pace and the cycling of your breath just flowing along the movement of your breath, Letting the movement of your body respond to it. Let yourself pulse through one more time. Full excursion of breath. And this time as you tuck and round into that little cat tuck shape, See how it feels to sink your hips back toward your heels. So you come into a child's pose. Your arms can stretch long, Right alongside your ears, Palms pressing into the earth, Hips sinking back to your heels. And you may take one round of breath here, Feeling the breath move into your low back and your middle back and your upper back. And when you feel ready to exhale, You could soften your shoulders and soften your mid back and soften your low back. And we'll now move from this child's pose shape back into that stretch of that cow stretch. So when you're ready to inhale, You can peel your way up to your hands and your knees. If you like, Drop your belly, Arch your spine, Tip your sitting bones up. And then as you exhale, Tuck and round through a cat tuck and all the way back to child's pose. A few more times like that. As you inhale, Peel your way up to your hands and your knees. Maybe arch into that cow stretch by dropping your belly and arching your spine. And exhale, Slow motion rounding through cat tuck and all the way back to child's pose. Flow through that twice more. Inhaling up to your hands and your knees and arching into a cow stretch. And exhale, Tucking and rounding through cat tuck all the way back to child's pose. One more time through like that on your own. Again, Just flowing along the pace and the rhythm of your own breath, Letting your body have the luxury of simply responding to it. You can pause back in child's pose when you arrive there. And one more cycle of movement from here. The next time you're ready to inhale, Come all the way up to standing on your knees. So your shins are on the floor, You're just standing on your knees. And once you arrive there, Let both arms sweep all the way out to the sides and all the way up alongside your ears. And then when you're ready to exhale, Sink your way back to child's pose. Let your arms circle back around and down. They can just rest by your sides as you come all the way down to child's pose, This little variation of child's pose. And when you're ready to inhale, Let that inhaling breath ride you all the way back up to standing on your knees, Arms sweeping out and up alongside your ears. And as you exhale, Your arms echo your breath as they circle around and back and down, And your hips sink back toward your heels and your forehead can bow toward the earth. Two more like that. Inhale all the way up to standing on your knees. Circle your arms out and up and feel everything expand. And as you exhale, Circle your arms back around and down, Sink your hips back. Let your arms rest by your sides. Let your head bow. One more time through like that. When you're ready to inhale, Let it peel you up and open all the way up to standing on your knees, Arms reaching up alongside your ears. And as you exhale all the way back down, Arms circle, Hips sink back to this variation of child's pose. And simply pause, Arms resting by your sides. Feeling the effervescence of your breath, Vibration in your body. Make your way back to a comfortable seat as you're ready. And we'll just do a few shoulder rolls just to liquefy the joints of the shoulders and feel that flow and movement of breath as you're ready to inhale, Let your shoulders scoop forward and up to your ears. And as you exhale, You could even sigh out your exhale and feel that roll of your shoulders around and back and down. Two more like that. Inhale, Scooping your shoulders along your breath forward and up to your ears. Maybe a gentle sigh as you roll your shoulders around and back and down. Once more, Inhale, Scooping your shoulders forward and up, Hydrating right into these joints as you exhale, Releasing your shoulders around and back and down. Finish our movement with some neck rolls here. You could dip your chin toward your chest and then just gently roll your right ear toward your right shoulder. And when you're ready to exhale, Drop your chin back to your chest. And as your inhale comes in, Roll your left ear toward your left shoulder. Exhale, Let your chin dip back to your chest. One more time, Again, This gentle movement right along your breath as you inhale, Right ear to your shoulder. Exhale, Let your chin dip back to your chest. Inhale your left ear toward your left shoulder, Little half neck roll. Exhale, Float your chin back to your chest. And as you're ready to inhale, You can bring your face forward again. And exhale, Soften your shoulders and relax through your neck. You can simply rest your hands again as we did at the beginning with the backs of your hands resting on your thighs maybe, Palms facing up. Let's drop back into two rounds of that three-part breathing fully into your lungs. As you're ready to inhale, Inhale into your collarbones and paws, Into your rib cage and paws, All the way into what feels like breathing into your belly and paws. Exhale, Relax your belly and your ribs and your collarbones. Inhale into your collarbones, Paws, Into your rib cage and paws, All the way into what feels like your belly, Paws. Exhale, Relax your belly and your rib cage and your collarbones. Relax your breathing, Just allow it to be as it is. Seeing yourself here, Settled and calm, At rest and at home in your place in the flow of things. Thank you so much for making this time for yourself and I look forward to being with you again soon.

Reviews

Lovely morning practice. The only thing I did differently was the 3-part breath, dropping my breath first into my belly, then rib cage, then collarbones. The sun is shining into my day. A peaceful in-tune start.